It will be extremely difficult for City to reach 100 points again next season, especially with post-World Cup fatigue and mounting pressure on Pep to excel in Europe. Odds are the Centurions will face a fiercer battle at the top of the league. United are already strengthening their lineup. Tottenham will likely perform better in their new stadium. Liverpool can close the gap by building on the momentum from the second half of last season. Chelsea are still a question mark until the managerial situation is sorted out.

Kane 6 year deal now on 200k base with easily achievable 290k/week per the tier 1 guys. Apparently Eriksen and Dele are in the coming days then Verts and Lloris. Massive statement of intent for the club following Poch's deal.

Poch and Kane are the best two signings we could have made all summer.

This was posted on a popular Spurs site by an ITK person and it's a nice peek behind the curtain at what goes into a transfer and how it's never as simple as it seems on the surface of negotiating a fee and signing a contract. He's answering people as to why we aren't doing more business before the world cup.

"I'm sure he does. Heck in fact I'm sure all managers would want the same. Fact is though we have a limited budget and it's not as simple as just "get them now". I have posted some of the issues in other posts but I will try and explain a bit one more time.

When I refer to "the players" that can mean the players themselves, the agents, their family members, and more often than not a combination of all three.

A club like ours will compile a shortlist of players that fit the need for the club. The players are no different. They will have their own list of clubs they would like to go to.....boyhood clubsplaying timegreat manager and/or playersCL footballlocationfinancialsetc etc.

We make our interest known to the selling club and agent, and the absolute first thing they do is look to see if they can do better elsewhere(that's their job). This might take time, for numerous reasons....

A preferred club is interested but needs to sell first,the club has an alternative they would prefer but strings the player along just in caseDifference of opinion on the transfer fee/wages between the buying club and selling club/agentOr like now an upcoming world cup which could change the desire in their players.

We are not top of the food chain(but we are not far off) so when we are looking at squad players it's usually a pretty easy decision from the players/agents POV, but the selling club is still going to look at maximising the transfer fee by selling elsewhere first. If the player is set on joining us and the selling club can get more elsewhere this will drag it out. Then the agent might think the other team will pay more = more delays. Then there is the players family that needs persuading etc etc.

The fact is in the early part of the window we are trying to do stuff but there are hurdles everywhere. In the last 2-3 weeks of the window the players/agents/clubs pretty much know where they stand. Other clubs are needing income to do their deals, players/agents are getting edgy and prepared to take less, and most importantly the Elite clubs aren't likely to force the prices up with their interest.

It's simple really, if we want players that none of the other teams would want it's easy. If we want our top choices then all the above has to align first and that takes time to happen.

Of course it is possible to get these deals done early ala Liverpool , but the fact is they are overpaying(quite significantly), both is Agents fee's and signing on fee's to do so. I'm sure there will be numerous posters now saying "well we should do the same". Firstly Levy does not operate like that, and secondly we have a budget, a transfer kitty a war chest call it what you will, but with everything else going on regarding stadium and pay rises it does have it's limit.

If we go down the route of greasing the wheels a deal which should cost £40 mil now costs £46. That's not just £6mil off the transfer fee of the next player. Well it's only £6mill, nothing in the grand scheme of things right? Wrong because when we come to sign player 2 his agent won't do business until he gets his Brucie bonus either. If Poch wants/needs 3 players in by the time we get to player three we can't get close to affording him and we are left short.

Now all that said I'm sure the nay sayers will come diving in with "If we hadn't wasted money on blah blah blah we wouldn't be in this position" Well maybe that's true, but our approach has been to buy lots of middle of the road(financially speaking) players with potential knowing some will work and some won't. You can't list all the flops without all the successful players either. Added to that how many of the so called flops have we actually lost money on, because they may not have performed on the pitch, but if they haven't cost us financially then they aren't really a massive problem.

Poch is very aware of how things work. If he wants his top targets sometimes it comes at a cost as far as timeline is concerned."

He's had quite a few knee injuries. I'm guessing Liverpool wanted to renegotiate agreed fee based on the medical results and Lyon rage quit. I think Fekir is a baller and would've been great but if his knees are fucked, then I'm OK with how this turned out.

I love the excuses coming out of the woodwork for Harry Kane. Simply put if Kane has a better performance in the semi final and bury's an easy chance England is 2-0 up and in a final. If Wayne Rooney was the one that put in a similar performance he would have been crucified. Love the double standard.

Rooney got crucified because he scored exactly 1 goal in 3 world cups. Stop with your victim complex. Kane pulled his weight in the team if anybody did. I'm sure he wants that chance back but acting like the loss is his fault directly somehow is narrow minded.

Dude had the golden boot. He scored more goals than anyone else in the tournament. That is a fact. Anyone questioning his ability is delusional. Yeah, some of them were penalties. So what? Do you have any idea how much pressure these guys are under when they take a penalty shot on the world stage like this? Especially if you are coming from a country like England that has history going back for decades for doing awful at penalties? Messi and Ronaldo, arguably the two greatest footballers of this generation both whiffed on penalties this tournament.

Also I didn't even criticize Kane. Simply stated that if he bury's it then England wins. Look at the butthurt comments up there. Kane had a decent tournament but lets not delude yourself into thinking he was great. Great penos and thats rare for England but thats about it. England's best players were Trippier, Young, Pickford, McGuire, Hendo and Sterling. Lingard and Kane had great tournaments but if their performances were of the quality of the group I mentioned above England is looking much better. Pitty Sterling's decision making in the final third let him down often.

Regardless it came out a few days later that Subasic actually made a fantastic save on that and Kane had actually hit the target. Fair play that. Can't fault Kane for that but he should have buried it before it even got to that. His first shot was rather tame.

"Conclusion: Shouldn't lose anybody important (Can, Origi, Mignolet... not sure who else), should add quality depth in key positions (hopefully a CB, CM, winger, possibly GK). Absolutely have to be in title race next year, no excuses."

I don't know that we have to win it but yeah, we definitely need to be challenging. Didn't add a CB but I think Gomez/Matip/Lovren/VVD is still solid. Added Fabinho, added Shaqiri, and signed one of the best keepers in the world. I still wish we could have signed someone like Fekir as depth for Firmino and Shaqiri is the only real potential game changer for us off the bench. City will almost always have a threat like Sane, Mahrez, or Sterling off the bench depending on rotation. That's insane.

Can't wait for the BS excuses if Liverpool fail to win the title. They have now spent a boat load of cash. Have a squad ready to win now. Somehow I feel it won't even be half as bad as the BS the media rolled out for United last year. Loving not having the same pressure this year, suits us just fine.

I mean i don't think there are any excuses to not compete for the title, but didn't City just break all types of records? Did they lose anyone important? Is Liverpool going to be be anyone's favorite to win?

[Edited on July 27, 2018 at 7:41 AM. Reason : Wait I think we just did ribs and aimorris's posts again ]

There are none, we weren't as good as city. Are you just arguing to argue? My point is watch Liverpool get a pass if they don't meet expectations. The biggest voices against United last year were the pool fans who kept saying we should be winning the league with the money spent. Well now the shoe is on the other foot, better win or shut up.

Well it's very confusing bc on this board we mostly discuss arguments bw each other but you always bring in some media arguments that only you have read.

So were tww people saying United better win or else? If so who?

Were tww people saying united were providing bs excuses for not winning? If so, who?

I'm not saying nobody said those things, just asking you to be less vague when railing against "the haters"

But anyway, aimorris and I have both already made our "BS excuses". But if we don't, at a minimum, do better than struggling to finish on the top 4 this year, I will def say that's a huge disappointment. I think expectations should be 2nd place and realistic competition for first. Actually winning would be exceeding, 3rd or 4th would be underachieving.

My actual worry for being able to complete those goals lies in our back line, especially if Matip is out long.

Reason? Lol. Liverpool has spent the third most amount of money in the PL over the last decade with how many trophies to show for it? Of course you will talk about net spend after selling Coutinho and Suarez for high fees. Let’s not act like you’re this poor mans team.

If Liverpool don’t win or at the very least compete for the league you are all hypocrites.

I don’t know how to tell you this but if you’re selling players for large fees it means they are in their prime and your club isn’t good enough to hold on to them.

Net spend is such a poor argument. Sir Alex barely spent the Ronaldo money and yet managed to dominate.

Let’s not act like you haven’t criticized the amount of money spent by united. I get it. It’s hilarious that despite the money spent José hasn’t won the league. Yet he still has more to show for it than Liverpool. Pool have spent boat loads in the last decade with little to show for it besides attacking football. Talk about net spend all you want. Your net spend is only favorable because the best clubs don’t usually sell their best players.

Now you have spent the money. Another season without a league or a CL would be a failure. This is the kind of pressure when you break two world record transfers. Continue hiding behind net spend though.

It's such a stupid ass argument. Liverpool is spending a shit ton of money but guess what? So is every other fucking team in the league. "No excuses for Liverpool because they're spending money." Here's one, the best team in the league and the second place team are also spending 50-60M on players. United is about to pay close to VVD's fee for Maguire. I don't know shit about Fred but he cost more than all of Mane/Salah/Fabinho/Ox/Alisson/Keita/Firmino. The team that just set a shit ton of PL records just paid 60M for a DEPTH player that isn't guaranteed to start for them. Shitty Everton just spent 50M on Richarlisson. Fuck. outta. here.

I have never given a shit about transfer fees and net spend. Your insistence with arguing with people not on tww is so annoying.